Sorry for the delay in this final entry to our travel log but after we were fortunate enough to have our truck promptly repaired in Kingdom City, MO[1] we decided to make a big push through to our destination. This took us through St. Louis, MO where we saw the famous arch in the rain and bid so long to Interstate 70 and hello to Interstate 64. A long, unexpectedly desolate, ride across across southern Illinois and Indiana ensued until we stopped for lunch in Dale, IN. Around dinner time we caught a glimpse of Louisville Slugger Park (again in the rain), crossed the Ohio River (see attached), and made our way through the Daniel Boone Forest of Kentucky to Charleston, WV by 11pm.

To the chagrin of restless felines (who were ready for the now established routine of pausing for a motel where they could have a peaceful meal and sleep in a bed) we then pushed through the night on the West Virginia Turnpike to arrive Thursday morning at 5:25am to pull into our driveway and watch the moon setting over our house. Ross and Marie Bush arrived to meet us with the keys and a hug.

After a few hours sleep, our first day in Pittsboro involved misc. security system hijinks [2] and HVAC issues but after a good night sleep we are in place for a long weekend with all major utilities back online (or offline in the case of the "security" system) as they should be.

....

Thanks for your support and encouragement across the country. We made it safe and sound and look forward to seeing each of you soon.

Love, Christine & [Elaine]

"There are no dangerous thoughts; thinking itself is dangerous." --Hannah Arendt from The Life of the Mind.

[1] We have blown out the heater and the mechanics by-passed it. Could something have gone wrong at the 11,000 Rocky Mountain pass to do that? Eventually we were overheating, not quite adding enough coolant, and limped into Kingdom City (named for Kingdom Oil, apparently). I was prepared to hear we had a blown head gasket.

[2] We triggered a fire alarm trying to understand the system, and it was still hooked up to the monitoring company. We expect the bill for the false alarm will go to the previous owners, the people of record at the alarm company. Then we had to get the previous owners to ask that the monitoring be stopped. Christine disconnected it all on Friday. I've been watching the arrest log fro the sheriff for a few weeks. Best i can tell there are dozens of invisible people who are cited for Failure to Appear.

[3] Yay the air conditioning cooled down the place! Then it stopped. All the moisture pulled out filled up some line triggering an auto disconnect. We had it back working before Friday heated back up.

I've inventoried a stack of invasive species on the property: Japanese honeysuckle, tree-of-heaven, autumn olive, and Japanese grass. While i have put in over an hour each morning in the yard, it's clear i'm calling the guy in the classifieds of the local paper to come clear the septic field and get rid of some of the large trees-of-heaven and then i'm calling the Goat Squad.

I've got my loppers and machete and will get the mower tomorrow. My sister was an angel and mowed the yard for us.